Checked parent, subtasks still show up in To Do list
Hi, I've been using LB for many years now (it's actually the reason I finally broke down and bought a Palm back in '01). I am still using LB 3.2.9 for Palm (haven't yet seen any new features that grab me, and I'm toying with ditching the balky Treo 650 for an iPhone), and I only just now discovered (or at least finally took the time to pin down) this odd behavior:
It sometimes happens that I will wind up skipping one or more subtasks in the completion of a project -- it won't turn out to have been necessary, plans changed somewhat along the way, etc. I'd like to keep them there for the next time I reuse the parent task (e.g., hosting a party), but I recoil at actually checking a subtask I didn't do (even if I move the Effort slider down to 0; it just seems inelegant, and spoils the emotional significance of checking off things actually accomplished, not to mention making it look next time like something got done last time that didn't). You would think that checking off a parent task ought to render any unchecked subtasks moot in the To Do list, but LB continues to display them.
Oddly, this behavior changes if the parent task is itself inside a "grandparent" task with "Complete subtasks in order" checked. So, in the following case:
• Grandparent task (Complete in order)
• Parent task (not in order)
• Child A
• Child B
checking the Parent task will hide the Child subtasks from the To Do list even if unchecked; however, if the Grandparent task is not Complete in order, then checking the Parent task will have no effect, and the unchecked Child subtasks will continue to show up in the To Do list regardless.
Is this by design, and has this behavior been changed in more recent versions?
Some subtleties there...
What happens is actually a little more subtle than that.
If you check off a parent, Life Balance will suppress the subtasks from appearing on the to do list once you tap on Update UNLESS, the parent is also set to repeat, in which case the leadtime will determine when the subtasks appear again.
It does not simply check off all the subtasks and give you credit for all the subtasks. That might be reasonable for a project set to happen Once. However, it is also possible that not all subtasks need to be done.
Complete subtasks in order hides subtasks specifically until the project section is done, so it's behavior is quite different.
Hope that clarifies.
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
Re: Some subtleties there...
Hi, Catherine,
That is the behavior one would expect, but that is not what I am seeing.
I have a test set up, comprising three tasks:
• Parent (Happens: Once, Anywhere, Not complete in order)
• Child (Happens: Once, Anywhere, Not complete in order)
• Child (Happens: Once, Anywhere, Not complete in order)
For the sake of the test, Parent is top-level (although the same behavior appears even when it is inside a top-level item).
When Parent only is checked, both Child tasks appear in the To Do list.
Again, perhaps this is only the case in LB 3.2.9; perhaps it's finally time to upgrade? ;-) Probably not worth a lot of back-and-forth at this late date.
Best,
David